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Gaming the Environment for Positive Change with Philippe Cousteau

#sxsw #uvabaygame

Join explorer and environmentalist Philippe Cousteau and panelists to explore how gaming innovations can improve the world. In 2010, The University of Virginia launched the UVA Bay Game, a large-scale game simulation of the Chesapeake Bay watershed that allows players to take the roles of various stakeholders (farmers, developers, policy makers) and to see how their choices affect the health and economy of the watershed. Since its launch, Cousteau’s Azure Worldwide has collaborated on the game’s development. From college courses and virtual classrooms to corporate board rooms and Capitol Hill, learn how the potential impact of the game has intrigued legislators, corporate leaders and other stakeholders. Panelists will discuss: How can games/simulations allow a variety of stakeholders to solve complex problems? Can games not only create solutions but also create new ways of thinking and interaction? What applications does the UVA Bay Game have outside of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed?

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Presenters

Ashok KamalCo-Founder & CEOBennu LLC

Ashok Kamal is Co-Founder & CEO of Bennu, which is the leader in green social media marketing. Ashok coined the term “green gamification” and has worked extensively with FORTUNE 500 clients and startups to develop game-based campaigns that promote sustainability while creating enterprise value.

Ashok’s career as a social entrepreneur spans the for-profit and nonprofit sectors, including launching a progressive entertainment company, leading a youth development organization, and working on Newsweek magazine’s inaugural Green Rankings while at KLD Research & Analytics, the pioneering sell-side firm for socially responsible investors.

Ashok holds a BA in Sociology and Environmental Analysis & Policy from Boston University and a master’s in Nonprofit Management from Milano The New School. He earned his MBA in Entrepreneurship from Baruch College’s Honors program, where he served as President of the Sustainable Business Club, Baruch’s Net Impact chapter. He has also studied abroad at the Indian Institute of Management, India’s premier business school.

Ashok has received numerous awards related to social enterprise. His writings on sustainability are regularly featured on leading websites and he is a frequent public speaker at green business events. He is also a board member of the Entertainers 4 Education Alliance and volunteers for the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE). In 2011, Ashok joined a distinguished team of eco-advocates to launch Ocean Aid, which is a campaign dedicated to protecting the health of our oceans.

Carrie FreemanDir of Sustainable Business InnovationIntel Corporation

Carrie Freeman, Intel director of sustainable business innovation, is responsible for the strategy and business development of eco-technology solutions in the areas of environment and natural resource management. In her previous role as corporate sustainability strategist, she directed corporate wide strategic sustainability efforts working with stakeholders across the company to ensure that Intel continues to build upon its industry leadership in sustainability. Since joining Intel in 1998, Carrie has been a regional environmental relations manager, an engineering manager and a technical program manager. Although, never her core job responsibility, Carrie is known for her work in the areas of diversity, personal mastery, leadership and career development. Carrie regularly speaks around the world on the role of information technology and sustainability. She is on the boards of the Nature Conservancy of New Mexico, the Permaculture Credit Union and acts in an advisory capacity to the Water Innovations Alliance and the Technology Venture Corporation. Carrie holds an MBA in environmental policy and planning from the University of New Mexico.

Jeffrey PlankAssoc VP for ResearchUniversity of Virginia

Jeffrey Plank is Associate Vice President for Research. He coordinates the identification, conceptualization, and implementation of large-scale institution-wide research initiatives, most recently the pan-University sustainability institute. As leader of the UVA Bay Game project, Plank pioneered development of an innovative participatory simulation that now serves as a proof-of-concept for demonstrating the potential of digital and social media to motivate personal and collective behavior change for environmental conservation. The defining features of the UVA Bay Game—its collaborative, high-impact, and “disruptive” conversion of problems into opportunities—will distinguish the University’s sustainability institute.

In 2009 Plank completed a three-part book series on architectural photography, building restoration, and architectural history, using the American modern architect Louis Sullivan and long neglected photograph archives of his work as his case study. A major 2008 exhibit in Chicago on this project was hailed by the Chicago Tribune as one of the 10 best of the year.

Prior to joining the University in 1993, Plank held academic and administrative positions at the University of Southern California, Georgia Tech, and the University of Chicago. He also has provided strategic planning, management, and fundraising counsel to the National Geographic Society, the American Research Center in Egypt, and the Leakey Foundation and has managed USAID projects in South Africa and Botswana.

Philippe CousteauCo-FounderAzure Worldwide

Explorer, social entrepreneur and environmental advocate, Philippe Cousteau is the 32-year-old member of the legendary family. He is the President of EarthEcho International (www.earthecho.org), a leading non-profit organization whose goal is to engage and empower youth to take action for a brighter future. His tools are simple—education, balanced advocacy and a commitment to action.
In addition to his work with EarthEcho International, Philippe is co-founder of Azure Worldwide (www.azureworldwide.com), a strategic environmental design, development and marketing company.
Most recently, Philippe announced a partnership with AdvisorShares Investments to leverage Wall Street to “do good” by launching the Global Echo Fund on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: GIVE), the first multi-manager exchange traded fund with a sustainable investment mandate where a portion of the management fee will fund a new Foundation aimed at funding solutions to many of the challenges facing the world community from social issues impacting women and children to environmental conservation, as well as supporting social entrepreneurship.
Philippe is also the spokesperson for the 2012 United States Pavilion at the World Expo in Yeosu Korea (www.pavilion2012.org).
As a special correspondent for and host of the Going Green series on CNN International, Philippe reports regularly on environmental and humanitarian stories from exploration of the extreme science of climate change deep in the frozen arctic to the deforestation and indigenous rights in the Sumatran jungle. Philippe is also the coauthor, with Cathryn Berger Kaye, of Going Blue, A Teen Guide to Saving Our Oceans, Lakes, Rivers, & Wetlands (Free Spirit Publishing), which was released in the summer of 2010 and has been awarded Learning Magazine’s 2011 Teachers’ Choice Award for the Family, a Gold Nautilus Award and a 2010 ForeWord Reviews Book of the Year Gold Award, amongst others.
Philippe serves on the Board of Directors of The Ocean Conservancy, Marine Conservation Biology Institute, and the National Environmental Education Foundation, and the National Council of the World Wildlife Fund. Philippe has also testified to Congress on issues of ocean management and off-shore drilling.